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SPACE OPERA: It will ROCK YOU IN THE FACE


Kalbear

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What the hell ever happened to book 2 of that anyway?

Just went to his website and it's gone. Seems to be happening a lot lately.

I'm not sure. He ran into some major roadblocks and then he got a couple of other gigs, like writing for Wild Cards and also writing for Marvel Comics. I think he's found the latter really cathartic - having to get material out every month no matter what - and it's helped with his novel writing, so we'll see.

Throne of the Crescent Moon was a very solid novel with some sequel hooks but it wasn't exactly screaming out for a sequel, so I'm not too fussed if it ever comes out.

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Throne of the Crescent Moon was a very solid novel with some sequel hooks but it wasn't exactly screaming out for a sequel, so I'm not too fussed if it ever comes out.

Given how poorly it sold and that most of the rave reviews came from the SJW SFF clique (who received free review copies), few people are holding their breaths.

Still, I'm curious to read it, just so we can see if Ahmed can elevate his game and make that series more than run-of-the-mill Middle Eastern-flavored sword and sorcery fare.

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Given how poorly it sold and that most of the rave reviews came from the SJW SFF clique (who received free review copies), few people are holding their breaths.

It has 9,000 ratings on Goodreads, of which 88% rated it 3-5 stars. I'm not completely sold on Goodreads as a metric, but that kind of reception is pretty good (it's also more or less the same review average as on Amazon). It's exactly the same percentage as Prince of Thorns, for example, where at least some of the "SJW SFF clique" (do they have badges?) took against it quite badly. Rick Riordan and Pat Rothfuss also raved about the book quite strongly, and GRRM really liked it. So yeah, it was pretty well-received.

Also, to get 9,000 ratings on Goodreads means the sales must have been pretty healthy. Maybe not on the original release, but combined worldwide sales since then (with paperback and ebooks) must have been a good 30-50K to justify 9,000 reviews on Goodreads (unless it was pirated to fuck, of course). That's not blockbuster money, but perfectly fine for anyone who isn't GRRM, Rothfuss or Sanderson. Certainly far more than Erikson got in his first few years on sale from GotM alone.

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Sales were abysmal for the first year or two. You may recall Ahmed asking for donations just to change his glasses. Things were not going well. And that's an understatement.

I remember an author with access to Bookscan on Reddit (I think it was Micheal J. Sullivan, but I'm not sure) who confirmed that sales were incredibly low and that was long after pub date.

Of course, international and domestic sales since then may have tipped the meter in a more positive direction. I sincerely hope so, for Saladin is a stand-up guy and a good short-fiction writer. Critics raved about the book and yes it was nominated for a few genre awards. But that just proved that critical success and commercial success rarely go hand in hand.

Now that six years have passed and with no sequel in sight, it will be interesting to see if book 2 can get any traction when it finally gets published.

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Also wasn't it nominated for lots of awards?

It won Locus Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and David Gemmell Morningstar Award. I really enjoyed Throne of the Crescent Moon.

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17 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

What the hell ever happened to book 2 of that anyway?

Just went to his website and it's gone. Seems to be happening a lot lately.

He got into comics, quite a bit.

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6 hours ago, Lord Patrek said:

I know he was writing it, but then suffered from acute depression. Probably still working on it, I guess. . .

Personally, for all that's been said on this thread, I don't think I'll ever try to read anything by Valente ever again.

The SJW SFF clique strikes again! HAHAHA ANOTHER NOTCH IN OUR VEGAN BELTS

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37 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Whoa whoa whoa, I aint no vegan

No, silly, of course not. Your belt is tho.

 

5 minutes ago, Lord Patrek said:

So there is hope yet. . . ;)

Sorry to have hijacked and derailed this thread.

Carry on. :)

Well, when you spout random bullshit, people tend to call you on it. 

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9 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Well, when you spout random bullshit, people tend to call you on it. 

The initial rave reviews truly did come from that SFF clique, Kalbear. Saladin himself was/is still part of it, so it stands to reason that the first ARCs Daw Books sent out went to those authors. That's simply good marketing. I know because his own editor let me know that I'd be in the second round of people receiving a galley at the time.

Said clique is political and quite active in the creation of ballots and award-voting, so again it's no wonder that TotCM received such a high number of nominations. All I'm saying is that this didn't translate into proportional sales.

Still, its poor showing as far as numbers go will forever remain an anomaly. Technically, based on all the positive noise at the time of its publication, TotCM should have done well early on. And for some reason, it didn't.

Just checked the Hotlist's backlog and since then the ebook edition was heavily discounted a number of times in recent years, which could explain the higher number of Goodreads ratings the book has garnered.

Still curious enough to read the second installment, whenever it comes out.

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Just now, Lord Patrek said:

The initial rave reviews truly did come from that SFF clique, Kalbear. Saladin himself was/is still part of it, so it stands to reason that the first ARCs Daw Books sent out went to those authors. That's simply good marketing. I know because his own editor let me know that I'd be in the second round of people receiving a galley at the time.

Yeah, sorry, you randomly calling people 'SJW SFF cliques' doesn't make any of it true. I perfectly believe that the first reviews came from a small group; I don't believe that they are a clique, that they are particularly aligned in some political way, or that any of that has to do with why they were so highly reviewed. 

Just now, Lord Patrek said:

Said clique is political and quite active in the creation of ballots and award-voting, so again it's no wonder that TotCM received such a high number of nominations. All I'm saying is that this didn't translate into proportional sales.

Again, all according to you, and that doesn't take into account the 9k reviews on goodreads or his current success elsewhere. Hell, by that definition Adam, Ran and Vox Day are all part of the SJW SFF clique. 

Just now, Lord Patrek said:

Still, its poor showing as far as numbers go will forever remain an anomaly. Technically, based on all the positive noise at the time of its publication, TotCM should have done well early on. And for some reason, it didn't.

Given your current bias, it's hard to believe that this is also accurate. 

Just now, Lord Patrek said:

Just checked the Hotlist's backlog and since then the ebook edition was heavily discounted a number of times in recent years, which could explain the higher number of Goodreads ratings the book has garnered.

This is what happens to basically all books not written by giant authors of doom. eBooks especially. 

 

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